By DESIREE GULLAN, co-founder and executive creative director of G&G Digital
What does it take to create an effective email marketing campaign that is not only read, but also engaged with? Mailers must convey a message and create an experience that entices the user to take the desired action.
Email marketing has many benefits and is a highly effective channel that can take the lead or compliment other digital channels, such as banners and paid search. Benefits include,
- Through personalisation and tailored content, your email marketing campaign improves by 14% in click-throughs and an additional 10% in conversions
- Easier for customers to understand and interact with, which can increase revenue by 60% when used efficiently
- Good creative is memorable and engaging
- Excellent response rate as email marketing drives more conversions than any other marketing channel including search and social.
The above can only be achieved through a strategic, well-crafted email campaign, implemented through smart copy, design and UX. Here are 7 factors to achieve a hardworking email marketing campaign.
1. Multi-channel integration
Consumers prefer content tailored to their needs so they need not do additional work to find what is relevant to them. Multi-channel integration such as QR-codes and tailored landing pages get users right where they need to be in as few clicks as possible. Simplicity is key, 90% of retailers report that a simple, integrated emails gets the best results.
2. Strong visual elements
Strong, compelling visual imagery isn’t just aesthetically appealing, it also helps convey the key message and reduces the need for too much intimidating copy.
3. Create an interactive experience
Users want convenience and ease-of-use such as one-click reviews, purchasing and returns, or whatever your conversion requirement is. Think of your email marketing as effective sales or customer service through a digital platform, in real-time.
4. Utilise live-content
Whether your campaign is for awareness, education or engagement, live-content keeps users intrigued. This could either include a live countdown timer, live scores, streaming an event or even rich media. It’s interactive, captivating and effective.
5. Improve accessibility for disabled users
Be it Siri, Alexa or Google Home, tech is available for all audiences including visually impaired, hearing impaired or physically disabled users.
6. Subject lines rule
Be adventurous and engaging with your subject line. When a user receives an email, the subject line determines whether it will be read or trashed.
7. Avoid these in your subject lines
Spam filters have improved tremendously, so take care when writing subject lines. Stay away from,
- Caps lock, because who wants to be yelled at by an email?
- Punctuation marks and obscure symbols are triggers of spam filters.
- Avoid language such as, free, act now, visit our website, for a limited time only and guarantee.
- Try not to be too salesy. The best subject lines suggest and intrigue users to read more.
In addition to a well-crafted email campaign, the benefits are substantial through the implementation of the following,
- Due to low cost per contact, it is cost effective
- Highly targeted with the correct databases on hand, which can be customised by interests, region and language
- Highly measurable with the correct tools
- Constant growth through the creation of new databases
- Sending four emails per month instead of one which significantly increases the number of users opening the email
- Email marketing generates more conversations than any other marketing channel
- Revenue for B2B brands increased by 60% through email marketing automation
Each of the benefits are not just measurable through data, but also clear KPI’s to ensure a significant ROI is gained. This is measured through,
- Open rate per mail sent out
- Clickthrough rate
- Number of emails shared
- Number of social shares
- Database growth
- Delivery and bounce rates
Consumers are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages a day, make sure yours is targeted, relevant, engaging and easy for your target market. This makes your desired conversions achievable which will assist with your objectives.